Panchtantra

Storytelling and Illustrated Zine | 2023
Cover of The Translation, an illustrated zine by Riya Kumari for ThisDay about how the Panchatantra was first translated

About the Story

A 6th-century Persian physician travels to India looking for a sanjeevani. It is said to have revived the dead. He ended up doing the first translation of the supposedly most translated literary product of India- The Panchatantra.

Research mood board for the Panchatantra zine: Persian manuscripts, coins, birds and old books

Writing

I started by drafting the story by combining all the different existing tales around the book and its initial translation into a narrative. There are not many concrete records of any of the events, and the events vary according to the sources. While drafting the story, it was important to acknowledge this.

Storyboarding and Colour Script

For storyboarding, it was important to maintain historical accuracy along with creative liberty. Since there were not many resources available, some generalisation had to be done while creating the visuals.

After the storyboarding, I did a rough colour script to figure out the colour scheme to be followed.

Storyboard and colour script thumbnails for The Translation zine
Illustration

The storyboard was then turned into the final illustrations.

Before that, there were multiple rounds of rough drafts to explore the texture and refine the colour palette.

Zine spread of a Persian king reading in a red palace beside the As Valuable as Roman Silk emblem Zine spread of gold coins and scrolls, and a 6th-century Persian physician walking through a lush Indian garden
View The Full Zine here!
Zine Placement

The zine was presented and given away as a limited collectible at the Jaipur Literature Festival at ThisDay's Stall.

The Translation zine displayed and read at a book fair stall Open copy of The Translation zine with the words Thank you

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